MetLife Investment Management LLC Purchases 2,031 Shares of Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS)

MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Reliance, Inc. (NYSE:RS) by 7.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 30,504 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,031 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Reliance were worth $8,214,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of RS. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Reliance by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,479,542 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $398,381,000 after purchasing an additional 138,866 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in Reliance by 15.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,382,916 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $372,364,000 after buying an additional 185,873 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Reliance by 6,311.2% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 816,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $219,841,000 after purchasing an additional 803,730 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Reliance by 53.5% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,685 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $195,402,000 after purchasing an additional 252,955 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Reliance by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 716,280 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $192,894,000 after buying an additional 50,528 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.26% of the company’s stock.

Reliance Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE RS opened at $271.83 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $14.38 billion, a PE ratio of 17.61 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 3.21. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $284.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $289.64. Reliance, Inc. has a 52-week low of $250.07 and a 52-week high of $326.87.

Reliance (NYSE:RS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The industrial products company reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.74 by ($0.52). The business had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.04 billion. Reliance had a return on equity of 11.87% and a net margin of 6.33%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Reliance, Inc. will post 16.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Reliance Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.77%. This is a boost from Reliance’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.10. Reliance’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Reliance news, CEO Karla R. Lewis sold 31,136 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.52, for a total transaction of $9,356,990.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 90,230 shares in the company, valued at $27,115,919.60. The trade was a 25.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.35% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on RS shares. Wolfe Research raised shares of Reliance from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Reliance from $321.00 to $327.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Reliance has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $319.00.

Reliance Profile

Reliance, Inc operates as a diversified metal solutions provider and the metals service center company in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company distributes a line of approximately 100,000 metal products, including alloy, aluminum, brass, copper, carbon steel, stainless steel, titanium, and specialty steel products; and provides metals processing services to general manufacturing, non-residential construction, transportation, aerospace, energy, electronics and semiconductor fabrication, and heavy industries.